Onto the Roof of the World: Lhasa

The flight into Lhasa crosses massive mountain peaks and dark, barren terrain. The airport lies on a dust-shrouded plain between brown mountains and our plane must fly between a couple of peaks before lining up for landing.


This is Tibet.




Lhasa is far cleaner than any Chinese city we have visited. It lies in a valley surround by mountains. Military presense is excessive. There are guards on every corner, 4 at each intersection, and roving patrols of 12 down every street. They carry automatic rifles, riot shields and billy clubs. The locals do not notice. They crowd the streets with carts and tables, selling everything imaginable: clothing, fresh fruit, cuts of meat, deep fried food, cd's, pvc piping. Behind the carts and tables are more permanent shops selling everything from replica North Face jackets to yak skulls. For some reason the three-story unbroken building fronts with brightly decorated upper-floors and paneled windows that line all the streets reminds me of a Carribean town of the 18th Century.

For our first day in Lhasa, we visit Drepung monastery, once the home to 10,000 monks. It is white, red and gold on the outside, filled with chapels and buddha statues inside. It is beautiful. At night we eat dinner at a restaurant overlooking a street in the Barkour area, narrow streets filled with shops, carts and pilgrims circling the Jokheng temple clockwise. The restaurant plays funky Tibetan music followed by Bob Marley, who seems to be very popular with the locals. During the day it is warm in the sun, almost 60. At night it drops into the 30s. I am lucky enough to have a working heater in the room.

The next day we visit the Potala Palace, the epitomal landmark of Lhasa, if not Tibet. It is stunningly situated on a large upthrust of rock in the center of Lhasa. The lower portion is white with a series of external staircases. At the top lie the red and the white portions - the white housing the political areas of the palace and the red the religious.

Another day, and we visit the Jokheng. At night we go to what I would describe as dinner theater. We are treated to a buffet and a collection of local music and dances. The dances are probably not genuine, but the highlight closing the show is a musical piece and demonstration on how to tame a yak. The yak gets the better of the tamer and runs wild into the audience. The following day it rains and snows. We have a lesson in how to speak Tibetan. For lunch we have a momo-making class - momos are dumplings.

For my free and final day in Lhasa, I take a hike up in the hills behind the Sera Monastery. The day is warm and after awhile the sun comes out. I walk with pilgrims clockwise around the monastery passing insense ovens and prayer flag shrines. I keep looking for a way up into the hills to Sera Utse, but no one seems to know how to get up to the nunnery lying 300 meters above. I settle for a path that wanders the hills about 150 meters up. Lunch is a mandarin, bread and a roasted chicken leg that I bought in the street.

Grasslands of the Tibetan Fringe

Our bus was not designed for the roads winding through the fringe mountains of Tibet, road being a generous term for a large portion of the route we take. The scenery is spectacular. We travel along river valleys between soaring cliffs and peaks. At first the nearly vertical mountain sides are covered with lush green trees, speckled with fall yellows and disappearing into thick rainforest mist. As we ascend, the climate becomes drier. We lose the mists and the color green gives way to the yellows, reds and browns of fall, contrasting against a clear blue sky. Then we come to our first roadblock. The local government has decided that no traffic in our direction can pass until 5PM. It is 2. So we wait. With all the other drivers on a dusty portion of road in a village with no running water. At 5 we are allowed to pass, but we arrive after dark in a Tibetan village near Danba. I have to walk through unhusked corn cobs to get to my room at the guest house. We eat dinner at a communal table in a room exploding with colors, sharing traditional Tibetan dishes.
The morning sun reveals a beautiful Tibetan village clinging to a valley wall. There are white houses decorated with traditional colors, some with roof ledges lined with corn. Cows wander the streets. We are passed by villagers riding on carts drawn by fully exposed combustion engines that pour out smoke and puttering noise as they pass. We wave. Back on the bus, and the roads deteriorate. The higher we go, the more barren the landscape. We see snow-capped mountain peaks. Fall colored trees give way to brown rock and scrub as we near the tree line. At the pass, 4200 meters, there are prayer flags flapping in the wind. Three young girls run out to greet us with "hallo, hallo." It is the only English word they know. We snap pictures. The plateaus are dotted with yaks and dark tents and motorcycles, the vehicle of choice for the grassland Tibetans.

We arrive at the town of Tagong, which contains a small monastery. A huge line of prayer flags extends across the town, supported by a cable stretched from one mountain top to another. The flag colors span the rainbow. We follow worshipers as they perform their evening circuit around the monastery, spinning the bronze prayer wheels as they go. I head into the monastery . There are golden buddhas, candles, red green and blue painted walls and columns. The air is thin here at 3700 meters and everyone is fighting altitude sickness. I spend a restless night with headache and dizziness until about 3AM when suddenly my body adjusts. I sleep and awaken to bright sun. I feel great.

After breakfast we head out, stopping for another roadblock around noon, again we must wait until 5pm. We walk through a nearby town, passing soldiers and street vendors. We play pool at an outdoor poolhall to pass the time. At 5 there is a mad dash as hundreds of waiting vehicles race across the now open road, kicking up dust so thick our driver can barely see. After nightfall we arrive in the town of Kangding. It is a quick overnight, then another long drive back to Chengdu.